The popularity of the 4.times.4 big wheel pick-up trucks, such as those often seen at fairs and competitions, has driven strong sales of motorized toy replicas for several years. The motorized toy monster 4.times.4 trucks conventionally provide four-wheel drive capability by driving one axle and coupling the driven axle to the other axle by a straight drive shaft, i.e., a drive shaft that runs substantially in the plane defined by the two axles. Accordingly, the underside of the chassis of the toy is no higher at any point between the two wheels than the plane of the wheel axles, and the toy can bottom out and stop when going over some kinds of terrain. The low chassis also is aesthetically undesirable, inasmuch as it does not look like a real-life monster truck, in which the bottom of the chassis is well above the plane of the axles.